The present invention relates to warning apparatus and a method, and, in particular, to warning apparatus for generating a hazard alert for public safety.
A large number of vehicles are present on roads today and road accidents involving pedestrians and motorists frequently occur, many of these resulting in human fatalities. Accidents may result from dangerous driving, such as driving at speeds in excess of the prescribed speed limits or by driving erratically. Pedestrians at a roadside may not focus their attention towards road hazards and pedestrians crossing a road may be distracted. The level danger of a traffic situation is often misjudged.
There are particular road traffic situations and locations that are of highly susceptible to traffic accidents. In areas near bus stops, there may be children and other people gathering around while vehicles are passing in the road nearby. Pedestrians may also wish to cross the road near the bus. At a bus stop, the bus typically obstructs the view of pedestrians crossing the road and the view of drivers of vehicles passing in the region near the bus. In this situation, road users may not be aware of the nature of the hazard, or even of a hazard being present. In addition, pedestrians wishing to cross the road near the bus may misjudge the speed of an oncoming vehicle. Where buses are involved, a high proportion of accidents involve school children alighting from a school bus.
Currently, motorists are provided with general warnings to take extra care in potentially dangerous areas of the road. For example, speed warning signs are provided at a roadside for informing drivers of a potential hazard. Vehicles are also provided with alert systems in the vehicle to warn passengers to wear a seatbelt, or to mind their step when disembarking from a bus. There also exist bus-based warning systems that can detect pedestrians being present in a pre-determined danger zone around the bus, and alert the pedestrians or driver of the bus that pedestrians have been identified to be present in the danger zone.
A problem with these warning systems is that the alert is not necessarily indicative of the actual danger of a particular situation, and may only take into account certain isolated factors that might contribute to a hazard. For example, the bus-based systems are only concerned with pedestrians, while the actual danger may be caused by a combination of factors, such as overtaking vehicles near the bus, or other road users. These warning systems do not necessarily take into account the real contributors to the hazard, and therefore lack an ability to produce adequate coordinated hazard alerts on this basis.
Alerts that are based on incomplete information about a situation have limited effectiveness, and road users will not necessarily respond appropriately to such alerts. These alerts may even be ignored once a road user has a perception that the alert is unreliable.
A further problem associated with fixed roadside warning signs is that the warning is only applicable to a vehicle at the locality near the sign.
It is an aim of the present invention to provide a system that obviates or at least mitigates the deficiencies and drawbacks associated with the existing systems.
It is an object of at least one embodiment of the invention to provide a warning apparatus that produces an alert according to the level and/or nature of the risk or hazard posed to a road user in a given situation.
It is an object of at least one embodiment of the invention to provide a vehicle-mountable warning apparatus that can produce an alert based on the actual hazard posed to a road user, and is directed towards pedestrians and drivers of other vehicles.
Other aims and objects will become apparent from the following description.